Warp-uniting machine.



N. H. ALFORD.

WARP UNITING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED mm. 19w.

1 ,245,4 1 8. Patented Nov. -6, 1917.

2 SHEETS SHEET I.

FIG

DIRECTION OF CARRIAGE TRAVEL Patented Nov. 6, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- FIGS.

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NEIL HERBERT ALFORD, 0F GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR TO HOWARD ID. CQLIVEAN, LUTHER, L. MILLER, AND A. SEVERSON, COPARTNEES DOING BUSINESS AS BARBER-COLMAN COMPANY, OF RGCKFORID, ILLINOIS.

WARP-UNITING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. e, 191 7.

Application filed January 6, 1917. Serial No. 140,891.

T 0 all whom 2'25 may concern:

Be it known that I, NEIL HERBERT AL- ronn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Greenville, in the county of Greenville and State of South Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Warp-Uniting Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to machines for uniting the ends of two warps, each thread of one warp being united to the corresponding thread of the other warp. The invent-ion has particular reference to a means for disposing of the pieces of thread which are trimmed off the ends of the knots tied by the machine. For an understanding of the construction and operation of such machines reference may be had to Patent No. 1,079,470, granted November 25, 1913, for improvements in warp-tying machines invented by Howard D. Colman.

In the machine shown in said patent the waste tl1readends above referred to are withdrawn from proximity to the knotter by means of an exhaust air current induced by a fan constituting a part of the mechanism of the machine. This method of removing the waste ends, while thoroughly eiiicient and practical, necessitates the provision of a fan and a motor affording sufficient power to drive the fan at effective speed.

In Patent No. 1,082,474, dated December 23, 1913, is shown a warp-tying machine ar ranged to be manually driven. The knotter of that machine does not trim off the ends of the knot, but, instead, the ends are tied into the knot. The tying of the ends into the knot makes the latter relatively large. When coarse yarns are being operated upon, the size of the knots renders difiicult the operation of drawing the knots through the harnesses of the loom. It is therefore de sirable to reduce the size of the knots by trimming off the ends thereof, but it is impracticable to remove the trimmedbfi thread-ends by means of an exhaust air current in a hand-driven machine.

The object of this invention is to obviate the necessity of employing an exhaust air current for removing the waste thread-ends, and to substitute therefor a mechanism requiring a negligible amount of power for its actuation, thus rendering it practicable to trim off the ends of the knots in machines bodying my invention, the view being on the order of that shown in Fig. 5 of said .Patent No. 1,082,474. F 2 is a fragmental sectional view illustrating the operation of the thread-end removing mechanism. Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 IS a fragmental view of the waste-endremoving device and a certain thread clamp. Fig. 5 is a view taken in the plane of dotted-line 5 of Fig. 2, but showing the parts in a different position.

The mechanisms of the warp-tying machine are mounted upon a carriage or slide 164 arranged to move from one end of the ied 1 to the other, or in other words, transversely of the warps upon a guide 165. In this instance the warp-tying machine is arranged to be manually driven by means of a hand-crank 166 fixed upon one end of a shaft 167, the latter being supported in a post 168 rising from the carriage 164. The

opposite end of the crank shaft 167 has fixed thereto a spur-gear wheel 169 which meshes with a gear wheel 170 fixed upon the main shaft 171. The latter shaft is supported in a post 172.

Any suitable means may be employed to select and separate threads singly and suc-- cessively from the warps, as, for example, the means fully lllustrated and described in said Patents Nos. 1,079,470 and 1,082,474'

The selected and separated threads are severed to provide loose ends for the tying operation by any preferred means, as, for example, a shear comprising a stationary shear-blade, not herein shown, and a coacting shear-blade 243 (Fig. 5) carried by a bracket 230 on the separator slide 224. Said slide is reciprocated longitudinally of the carriage 164 and in line with its movement over the bed 1 by means of a crank disk 7228 fixed to one end of the main shaft 171 and connected with the slide through the medium of a rod 229 as fully illustrated and described in said Patent No. 1,082,474.

A moment before the threads are severed by the shear just mentioned, the threads are clamped by means to be next described.

252 is a tube of generally square crosssection rigidly supported in the post 172. )Vithin said tube is fixed a bracket 253 the outer end portion 350 of which constitutes anabutment or stationary clamp member. Fixed to the bracket 230 is a bracket 256 upon which is mounted a slide 258 carrying at its forward end a clamping jaw 259. The parts 256, 258 and 259 may be substantially similar to the correspondingly numbered parts fully described in Patent No. 1,082,l-7

The bracket 253 comprises a portion haw ing a throatway 351 (Fig. 2) which is pro vided with a flaring entrance 352, the inner end of the throatway being enlarged to form two notches 353.

Upon one side of the tube 252 is fixed a plate 254 (Figs. 2, 4 and 5) having formed therein a throatway 255 which is provided with a flaring entrance 255 Tension is placed upon the severed ends of the threads during the knot-forming operation, and the threads raised into position to be received in the open tying-bill, by a spring clamping finger 265 which is attached to an arm 266, the free end of the clamping finger pressing against the side of the plate 254:. The finger 265 is moved into and out of position to engage threads extending through the throatway 255 by means comprising a coiled spring 267 (Fig. 2) and a cam 268, the latter being fixed upon a shaft 269. Said shaft is driven from the main shaft 171' through the medium of a gear 270 fixed on the shaft 269 and meshing with the gear 170.

The forward end of the bracket 256 is in the form of a fork 263 (Fig. lVhen the separator slide 22a advances to carry the selected threads to the knotter, the threads are clamped between the abutment 350 and the jaw 259. A moment later said threads are severed by the shear 2%3. The bracket 256 continuing its forward movement with the separator slide, the fork 263 of said bracket carries the severed ends into the tube 252,'said ends slipping past the clamping jaw 259 to the extent necessary to permit of such movement, the threads being at the same time inserted into the throatways and 351. After being pushed through the throatway 351 the threads spring into the notches 353 and are retained therein during the operation of tying the knot. As the separator slide 22a completes its forward movement. the threads are carried under the point of the rotary tying-bill 279. The tying-bill is rotated by means of a spiral pinion 286 that meshes with a spiral gear 285 on the shaft 269.

The knot is tightened and stripped from the tying-bill 279 by a rotary stripper hook 287 mounted to revolve in a vertical plane between a plate 288 and a notched plate 289, which plates provide bearing edges across which the threads extend when the stripper hook 287 pulls the threads downward in the space between said plates as is fully illustrated and described in said Patent No. 1,082374.

Fig. 3 shows the completed knot as being stripped from the tying-bill by the stripper hook 237. a are the pieces of threads which have been severed from the united threads by the tying-bill 279. These waste threadends are removed from the throatway 255 and the enlarged inner end of the throatway 351 by means to be now described.

A hook 35 is pivoted at 355 to an arm 356 fixed to the separator slide 22 The hook 352i is pivotally moved by means comprising a lever 357 pivoted at 358 to a stationary part on the carriage 16a. The lever.

357 has a longitudinal slot 359 to receive a roller stud 360 carried by an arm 361 which is rigid with the hook 35%. The lever 357 is pivotally moved by means of a roller stud 362 running in a cam groove 363 formed in one side of the gear wheel 169.

The point of the hook 35a is arranged to move through a narrow passageway 364 (Fig. provided between one wall of the tube 252 and the adjacent side of the bracket 253. At the rear end of the passageway 364 is a leaf spring 365 located at the bottom of the tube 252 and bearing against the side wall of said tube. so that the hook 354; shall draw the threads between said wall and the spring. Above the spring 365 and also bearing against said wall of the tube is a longer spring 366 (Fig. 2). This spring is sectioned away in Fig. 5.

The rear end of the tube 252 communicates with a flaring tube 367 which in turn communicates with the upper end of a wastethread-end receptacle 368 mounted upon the carriage 164;.

The operation of the threadend-removing mechanism is as follows: The hook 35% occupies the position shown in Figs. 1 and 3 and in dotted lines in Fig. 5 as the knot is being completed. After the tying-bill 279 has trimmed ofi the ends of the knot the separator slide 224: begins to advance to carry another pair of threads to the knotter. In such advancing movement of the separatorslide the hook 354 is drawn rearwardly through the passage 36a, said hook engaging the trimmed-off ends a and drawing them rear.- wardly through said passageway. The thread-guiding and clamping finger265is not lowered to release the thread ends a until after the hook 35a has engaged said ends, as indicated in Fig. 4:. In the continuing movement of the separator slide, the hook 35st draws the thread-ends a between the spring 365 and the adjacent wall of the tube 252, said spring serving to hold the threads against possible return movement when the hook 35% returns to take another pair of thread-ends c. Having brought the threadends a to the position shown in Fig. 2, the hook an rises, the spring 366 acting to strip the threadends from the hook as the hook rises. The hook 354 then returns, being meanwhile held elevated so as to clear the two threads which have just been inserted into the throatways 255 and 351. The hook 354 is then lowered into the position shown in Fig. 1 and after the ends of the knot then being formed have been trimmed off, the hook again advances to draw the thread-ends along the passage 36st. Each pair of threadends pushes the preceding waste pieces along through the tube 252, said waste pieces being gradually pushed through the tube 367 and into the receptacle 368.

The hook 35 i and the walls of the passageway 36st may be considered as a friction clamp to hold the trimmed-off thread-ends, one element (354-) of the clamp being movable to withdraw said ends.

It will be seen that the thread-end-removing means herein disclosed requires but a negligible amount of power for its actuation. It is thus possible to dispense with a fan and a centrifugal separator to separate the waste thread-ends from the air current; and it is practicable to employ, in hand-driven warp-tying machines, a knotter which trims cit the ends of the knots.

lVhile I have herein described the present embodiment of the invention in considerable detail, I would have it understood that the invention is not limited to the particular devices herein shown, nor to use on warpuniting machines of the particular construction herein illustrated.

I claim as my invention:

1. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, two devices forming a narrow passageway adjacent to the knotter, each of said devices having a thread-receiving throatway, a separator slide, a. hook pivoted on the slide and arranged to engage trimmed-ott thread-ends extending through said throatway and withdraw them through the passageway, means to pivotally move the hook, and a device to strip the thread-ends from the hook.

2. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a carriage, a separator slide on the carriage, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, a hook pivoted on the slide and arranged, in the movement of the slide, to withdraw the trimmed-oft thread-ends, a lever pivoted on the carriage and having a slot-and-stud connection with the hook, a drive shaft on the carriage, and a cam mounted on said drive shaft and arranged to pivotally move said lever.

3. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a carriage, a separator slide on the carriage, a knotter on the carriage for tying two threads togetherand trimming off the ends of the knot, a hook pivoted on the slide and arranged, in the movement of the slide, to withdraw the trimmed-cit thread-ends, a lever pivoted on the carriage and having a slot-and-stud connection with the hook, and means on the carriage for pivotally moving the lever.

at. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a carriage, a separator slide mounted on the carriage, a knotter on the carriage for tying two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, a device mounted on the slide and arranged, in the movement of the slide, to withdraw the trimmed-off thread-ends, and means on the carriage for moving said device into and out of engagement with the thread-ends.

5. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a separator slide, av knotter for tying two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, a hook pivoted to the slide and arranged, in the movement of the slide, to withdraw the trimmed-oft ends, and means for pivotally moving the hook into and out of engagement with the thread ends.

6. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threadstogether and trimming off the ends of the knot, means forming a passageway adjacent to the knotter, a separator slide, a hook pivoted on the slide and arranged to withdraw the trimmed-ofi' thread-ends through said passageway, and means for pivotally moving the hook into and out of engagement with the thread ends.

7. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming ofi the ends of the knot, means forming a passageway adjacent to the knotter, a slide, a thread-end-engaging device mounted on said slide and arranged to move through said passageway, and means for raising and lowering said device into and out of engagement with the thread-ends.

8. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a slide, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, a device mounted on said slide and arranged, in the movement of the slide, to withdraw the trimmed-oft thread-ends, and means for raising and lowering the de vice.

9. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming ofl? theends of the knot, a mechanical device arranged to engage and withdraw the trimmed-off thread ends,and a device arranged to clamp the trimmed-oil threadends until after said thread-ends have been engaged by said mech anical device.

10. A warp-tying machine having,in com bination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming 0d the ends of the knot, two devices forming a passageway adjacent to the knotter and each having a thread-receiving throatway, and a hook arranged to engage the trimmed-off threadends lying in said throatways and withdraw them through said passageway.

11. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, means forming a passageway adjacent to the knotter, a hook arranged to engage the trimmed-off thread ends and draw them through said passageway, a leaf spring with which the thread-ends are drawn into engagement by the hook, said spring being in the lower portion of the passageway, and a stripping spring in the upper part of said passage and extending beyond the other spring.

12. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming oii the ends of the knot, means forming a passageway adjacent to the knotter, a hook arranged to engage the trimmed-off thread ends draw them through said passageway, and a device in the passageway to strip the thread-ends from the hook.

13. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming oi the ends of the knot, means forming a passageway adjacent to the knotter, a hook arranged to engage the trimmed-ofi thread-ends and draw them through said passageway, and a yieldable device in the passageway to engage the thread-ends.

let. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a shear for severing two threads, a

and I knotter for tying the two threads together knot, and a reciprocatory hook arranged to engage and withdraw the trimmed-01f thread ends.

16. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, means for severing two threads, a knotter for tying the two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, and a hook arranged toengage and withdraw the trimmed-oft thread-ends.

17. A warp-tying machine having, incombination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, means forming a passageway adjacent to the knotter, and mechanical device arranged to engage and withdraw the trimmed-off ends through said passageway.

18. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming of]? the ends of the knot, means forming a passageway adjacent to the knotter, and a hook arranged to engage the trimmed-ofl thread ends and with draw them through said passageway.

19. A warp-tying.machine having, in combination, means for severing two threads, a knotter for tying the two threads together and trimming off the ends of the knot, and a mechanical device arranged to engage and withdraw the trimmed-off threadends.

20. A warp-tying machine having, in combination, a knotter for tying two threads together and trimming 05 the ends of the knot, and a friction clamp for holding the trimmed-01f ends of the knot, one member of which clamp is movable to withdraw said ends from the vicinity of the knotter.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand.

NEIL HERBERT ALFORD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner .of Patents,

Washington, I). G. 

